Knights Of Sparta

Knights of Sparta is primarily a Dungeon Guild – but what does this mean?

Basically, the guild was formed to gather together like minded players who love to form groups to conquer dungeons. Some experienced players are often impatient with newer players who have less dungeon experience. Therefore it is sometimes difficult for new players to get into dungeons and learn the basics. It is hoped this page will give those less experienced players a basic knowledge of what dungeons are about.

Instances

The dungeons we are referring to are more specifically Instanced Dungeons. These are dungeons that when you and your group enter - you get your own copy of that dungeon that no-one outside your group can enter. Hence it's just your group and the mobs that the dungeon will throw at you.

What dungeons are there?

Dungeons in World of Warcraft are spread all over the world, a full list and the level your character can expect to complete them can be found Here. The levels given here are different to those given on other sites, including the official World of Warcraft website, because over the years the older content of the game has repeatedly been made easier but the other sites haven't been updated. In most cases if you enter the pre-Northrend dungeons at the 'official' levels you will find them too easy.

Elite Mobs

Instanced dungeons contain mostly 'Elite' mobs. These mobs are tougher than non-elite mobs of the same level. Hence whereas you may be able to beat a mob of the same level as you, an Elite mob of your level will be quite difficult on your own. We prefer to enter dungeons where the mobs are a couple of levels higher than ourselves. This presents a challenge that can only be overcome with good group strategy.

Forming a Group

Most dungeons allow groups of up to 5 players. Dungeons that have a higher player cap are called 'Raids', typically these have 10 or 25 players. In a typical 5 man set up for a dungeon there should always be a Tank, a Healer and 3 DPS (damage dealers).

The Tank is normally the player with the most hit points and highest armour in the group, and has skills to be able to cause high 'threat' and keep mobs hitting them and not the Healer (or DPS but that's partially their job, we'll cover that later).

Current 'Tank' classes (specialisations) in the game are: Warrior(Protection), Paladin(Protection), Druid(Bearform Feral) and Death Knight(Blood)

The Tank's job is to keep Aggro on the mobs. Every mob in a fight has a threat table, a list of who they think is the most threat to them, 'Aggro' is what the person at the top of that table is said to have, because that's who the mob attacks. So the tanks job is to use their abilities and skill to make sure they stay at the top of that table... for ALL mobs in an a fight. If extra mobs join a fight, these are called 'adds', the tank must pull them to themself too, and keep them there.

Next is the Healer, this is the player who has healing abilities to keep the Tank alive. As hard as the Tank may be, his or her hit points will not last indefinitely, and so the Healer must keep throwing healing spells in the Tank's direction. They also have to keep the DPS and themselves alive from Area of Effect and incidental damage. They have to do this while ensuring that their own threat level doesn't put them higher on the mob's threat table than the tank or the mob will likely turn on them and kill them. The act of healing a player attacking a mob causes the mob to see you as a threat just as much, if not more than actually hitting the mob.

Current 'Healer' classes(specialisations) in the game are: Priest(Holy or Discipline), Shaman(Restoration), Druid(Restoration) and Paladin(Holy)

Finally there's the DPS team, this consists of 3 players whose job it is to deal out the damage and actually kill the mobs. DPS stands for Damage Per Second. The higher your DPS the faster the mobs die. BUT the higher your DPS is the more threat you cause to the mob, the higher up its threat table you go, if your threat goes higher than the Tank's then you are at the top of the mobs list and it will change target to hit, and probably kill, you. So a DPSer's job is actually to balance their damage with their threat so that they are constantly on the edge of pulling the mob from the tank but never quite get there.

DPS classes are split into 2 types 'Melee DPS' and 'Ranged DPS': these are those that fight the mobs up close and those that shoot them from a distance.

Current DPS classes(specialisations) in the game are:
Melee - Warrior(Arms or Fury), Paladin (Retribution), Rogue(All specs), Shaman(Enhancement), Druid(Catform Feral), Death Knight(Frost or Unholy)
Ranged - Hunter(All Specs), Mage(All Specs), Warlock(All Specs), Priest(Shadow), Shaman(Elemental), Druid(Balance)

Threat Management

Tanks have abilities to cause additional threat (such as a Warrior's 'Taunt'); they need to find out what these are and make sure they use them to keep maximum threat levels at all times.

Some DPS classes have abilities to lower or 'dump' all their threat (such as a Hunter's 'Feign Death'); they need to know what these are and when to use them to best keep their threat below that of the tank.

Healers usually have talents within their talent trees to lower their healing abilities' threat generation, they should spend their talent points here, also learn to space out their healing as much as possible to spread their threat generation out.

In the in-game Interface Options there is a 'Threat Meter' option which, when turned on, will make the portrait/health bar of any group member glow yellow>orange>red and make a sound as that member pulls aggro from the mob. This is very useful for tanks to see when they've lost aggro or there's an add they've missed, for healers to see who's about to need healing fast and for DPSers to manage their damage output.

This doesn't work for Raid groups where the Healthbar interface changes, so, as a guild, we have chosen to use the 'Omen' threat meter add-on in raids which does a similar job. Tanks should also consider using the 'Threat Plates' add-on to monitor their threat on all mobs in a fight at once.

Pulling

When you first hit/shoot a mob or a group of mobs, this is referred to as 'Pulling' them. It is the most crucial part of any fight. A 'bad pull' is the reason for 99% of (non-boss) wipes. Learning to do it well is very important. This job is most commonly performed by the Tank but can often be a Hunter, particularly after Level 70 when they get Misdirection.

IMHO: By rights, after Level 30 and 'Feign Death', particularly after Level 70 and 'Misdirection' tricky pulls should ALWAYS be made by a Hunter if there is one, but Warriors were given bows when the game first started (when Warriors were the ONLY tanking class) and they went to their heads. Look up 'The Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety' if you don't believe me.

There are four five main types of 'pull':
The Face Pull The tank gingerly steps forward until one of the mobs notices them and attacks.
The Charge Pull The Tank charges in like a bull in a china shop.
The Range Pull The Puller shoots (casts on) a mob from a distance to get them to come to the tank (Note; casters and ranged mobs don't come)
The Line of Sight (LoS) Pull The Puller shoots (casts on) a mob from a distance and then ducks behind something solid (Note; NOW the caster and ranged mobs HAVE to come to the Puller to be able to hit them)
And lastly
The Death Knight 'Yank 'n' Spank' Whereby a DK tank will just use Death Grip to yank the chosen mob to themselves. Downside to this is it loses the Death Grip ability for grabbing adds if it's on cool down.

The Puller should let the group know which method they're going to use before each pull so they know whether to follow them in or not. Whichever method is being used the DPS and Healers MUST hold back joining the fray until the Tank has physically hit the mobs a couple of times to gain aggro, the initial pulling shot does NOT count.

Group Strategy

It is important that all members of the group work to a plan. If the DPS shoot whichever mob they first select they will likely select different targets, it will take longer to kill the mobs and the Tank has to work harder to keep aggro on all the mobs being hit. This may also lead to mobs running away and bringing more mobs back with them. This situation often leads to what is referred to as a 'Wipe'. A wipe is when all members of the group are killed.

It is ALWAYS better for the DPS to focus their firepower on the same mobs, one at a time to kill it fast, and reduce the number of mobs the Tank has to maintain aggro on and take damage from. This is generally done through 'Marking' which we shall explain later.

While most DPS classes have Area of Effect (AoE) spells and abilities they should not use these in group situations unless the Tank has specifically asked them to. The tank will usually do this if facing a group of lower level or non-elite mobs that need burning down fast. Using AoE unasked is one of the fastest ways to pull multiple mobs' aggro and die.

Crowd Control

Crowd Control or 'CC' refers to the use of certain abilities to temporarily remove mobs from a fight.

Most DPS classes have a specific CC ability, they vary from class to class as to how long the ability lasts balanced by how many different kinds of creature it can be used on.

Hunter : Freezing Trap or Freezing Arrow; works on anything for 60 secs
Paladin(Retribution) : Repentance; works on Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead for 60 secs
Shaman : Hex; works on Humanoids and Beasts for 60 secs
Shaman : Bind Elemental; works on Elementals for 50 secs
Priest : Shackle Undead; works on Undead for 50 secs
Mage : Polymorph; works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters for 50 secs
Warlock : Banish; works on Demons and Elementals for 30 secs
Warlock's Succubus : Seduce works on Humanoids for 15 secs
Rogue : Sap works on Humanoids, (Beasts, Demons and Dragonkin at Rank 4) that are not in combat for 1 min (Cannot be reapplied)

Be aware that CC can be resisted in accordance with the caster's 'hit rating' and some mobs are CC resistant (Including all 'bosses').

All forms of CC (with the exception of Banished Demons/Elementals that can't be damaged) will break if the CC'd mob takes damage, make sure they're CC'd away from the fight, or move the fight away from the CC'd mob.

For a more in depth description of how best to use CC, see our Basic Guide to CC.

Raid Marking

Marking should be the job of the person in the group who 'Pulls' the mobs. The leader right clicks a mob's portrait and selects an icon to place above its head, they then repeat this as necessary.

Each icon is assigned a different meaning to tell the group what to do with each mob. These meanings should be agreed with the group on entering the dungeon.

Marking conventions may differ from one group to the next. But the ones referred to in this guide are the Guild standards.



All Guild members are encouraged to use this for consistency.

Hopefully This will have made Dungeoneering seem a little less like 'stepping into the unknown'.

You should also make yourself aware of Basic Dungeon Looting Etiquette